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PublicationDate: 7/30/99 Summary: Student Financial Aid Year 2000 Project Status As of 30 July, 1999 Author: PSS - Program Systems Service As of 30 July, 1999 The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) is proud to announce that OSFA programs systems, which deliver and administer student assistance, are Year 2000 ready. However, this achievement alone does not assure the delivery of student aid. Trading exchange testing with our large population of OSFA customers will further reduce the risk of a Year 2000 failure in the delivery of student assistance. OSFA encourages each institution (school or agency), EDExpress or others to test their data exchange with the following systems during the windows of opportunity listed below. Testing plans and test cases can be found at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/b2a.html.
There have been significant changes on the Pell testing: · The Pell Origination testing window has been extended to Aug. 20, 1999 along with the already scheduled Pell Disbursement testing (July 12 - Aug. 20). · The Pell school test plan has been modified and will be posted on ED Website on Aug. 2 and the testing personnel are reminded to read the updated plan before engaging in the testing. · In order for schools to participate in the Pell Y2K Disbursement testing, schools must first successfully process student records in the Pell Y2K Origination test. On NSLDS schools and trading partner testing, the end of the second window has been extended from the previously announced August 20 to August 31, 1999. Specific cautions to institutions performing Y2K testing with CPS: Institutions need to enter and transmit the 12 test FAFSAs without making any data entry errors, and with their system clock set to 02/29/2000, in order to pass the test. As a reminder on Y2K testing: Those schools who use EDExpress to participate in Year 2000 testing with the Department will get a message stating they need an access date password when they set their system clock back to the current date. This is because they are attempting to access the software with a system date earlier than last entered. They should call CPS Customer Service at 800-330-5947 to get the access date password. They should also tell the Customer Service Representative that the call is Y2K related so they are not charged for the call. The test results have shown that some of the testing challenges schools are experiencing are not always Year 2000 related. The common problems include: · Invalid data - a non-Y2K problem due to data entry errors - an invalid test case even didn’t make it to compute stage, for example, such as in CPS school testing. · Not following the test procedures - such as not setting the system clock ahead or not using the ED-provided test data · Wrong data format - such as gaps in the data fields or not properly formatted as required Careful preparation of data for the test and use of the test cases as a checklist will aid in successful testing. Institutions and agencies that have successfully tested will be acknowledged on the honor roll of the Department’s Y2K Web site. The Year 2000 Office of Student Financial Assistance Business Continuity and Contingency Plan is another milestone accomplishment OSFA has completed. OSFA submitted the plan to OMB on June 15, 1999. This plan provides OSFA business continuity should any portion of the student financial assistance business processes experience a disruption due to a Year 2000 problem. The plan identifies eight core business processes and numerous key sub-processes, normal and emergency levels of performance, potential failure scenarios, and a variety of risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans addressing potential failures. OSFA posted this plan on the Web site (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/reports.html) for community review and input in July. OSFA encourages institutions and agencies to review our plan and develop similar plans to ensure their ability to continue student financial assistance delivery and other core business functions associated with their mission. OSFA is conducting outreach to our financial aid community partners on Y2K assessment, testing, and contingency planning. OSFA held focus groups in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and San Antonio. Nine others are scheduled through August. A session on Y2K contingency planning was held at the NASFAA Annual Conference in July. In conclusion, OSFA wants to ensure that the student financial assistance community will not be disrupted on account of the Year 2000 problem. The SFA Year 2000 project team may be reached via email at: |
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